The Next Room
by lovejag
Summary: She'll always be waiting in the next room for him. HM


"The Next Room"  
  
By Rita Widmer  
  
Disclaimer: JAG doesn't belong to me, but to DPB, and the cast and crew of JAG.  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Pairing: H/M  
  
Warning: I think there might be a need for a hankie on this one.  
  
AN: Harm and Mac decided to have this conversation in my head tonight so blame it on them. I have never done a story like this one, and I don't think I want to again. This story is also partly inspired by "Remember WENN," which has been an inspiration for many stories for JAG, and my inspiration to have stared writing fanfiction. Harm's quotation at the end is from RW, and is based on a poem. This is in memory of all that have died before us.  
  
Two lowly figures were in a very lowly room. The light was harsh and bright on them, but no one paid any attention to it. Outside the sun was starting to set, and for one of those figures it would be their last sunset and the other would never forget it.  
  
The once dark-skinned woman was very pale against the white cotton sheets that were surrounding her body. Her eyes were closed, but even in rest the pain was noticeable. One arm lay against her stomach while the other was being held by a man.  
  
The man was leaning over her like he was trying to protect her, but his whole countenance said he knew it was no use. This was one thing he could never save her from, and it tore his insides apart. His face showed signs of long term crying with its redness and tear stained tracks along the cheeks.  
  
It had been a miserable year for both with so many close calls with death that they couldn't keep track of them all. She had fought hard to stay alive, but another biological clock was set to go off. They had tried to fulfill as many of her dreams in that time so she could die knowing she fulfilled them.  
  
With a slight jerk of her hand, Sarah Mackenzie woke up. She tried to lift her lips into a smile for him, but even that was too much effort for her. Her eyes furrowed as she grimaced in pain.  
  
"Promise me, Harm," Mac pleaded.  
  
"I'll promise you anything. What is it?" asked Harm.  
  
"Live for me! Be everything that you were before...this happened."  
  
"I don't know if I can. The pain I feel now is going to be nothing I feel after you leave me behind."  
  
"Please Harm promise me. If you promise me then I know you will do it. You never break your promises."  
  
"I can promise you that I will try. What am I going to do without you?"  
  
"Keep living a life that is full. When your time is up, I'll be waiting for you with outstretched arms. It will be a great day, but for now there are people that need you to stay alive."  
  
"I promise you I will."  
  
"Good," Mac smiled knowing he would. "Look at that sunset. It's a bright fiery red with purples, and orange. It's the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. My mother once told me that while she was holding me for the first time, she looked out the window and saw a beautiful sunset. The prettiest she ever seen in her life."  
  
Harm and her watched the sunset go down slowly. Each capturing the moment between them. Their one last conversation together on Earth.  
  
Mac squeezed his hand to get his attention. He turned towards her, and by the expression on her face he knew time was drawing to an end for her.   
  
"There's a letter for you in the drawer. Please read it when I'm gone." Her breathing was getting more shallow as she spoke. Then her eyes beckoned him to come closer.  
  
"I love you, Harm."  
  
"I love you too, Sarah."  
  
With that they kissed for the very last time. It was full of passion and love, and like the sunset it would sustain in his memory until the day he died. When their lips parted, Mac's eyes became dazed. Next to him the heart monitor was slowly becoming a straight line.  
  
There was only two sounds in that room at that instant. The sound of the alarm on the heart monitor, and the sobbing of a man who lost his love of his life. Soon the room came ablaze again with sound as the doctor and nurses rushed in to try to save her, but it was all too late.  
  
As the doctor covered Sarah's face, Harm grabbed the letter out of the drawer. He would read it when he got home.  
  
Harm stood before the large group of family and friends who came for Sarah Mackenzie's funeral. He wanted to capture her with his own words of love so no one could forget her, but everything he had thought of never did satisfy him.  
  
"I wasn't able to think of the right words to describe Sarah or Mac as some know her as, but she gave me the right words before her death. I think her own words describe how she would like to be remembered. I'm only going to read part of the letter she wrote to you," he paused and took out the letter from his pocket, "'What is death? Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room, and I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other then, that we are still. Speak to me in the easy way that you always used, laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together, let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Life means all that it ever meant; there's absolute unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I'm out of sight? I am waiting for you, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well.' She made me promise to do this every day of my life, and I hope that I can find strength in her words when I wonder how I can go on without her."  
  
After the funeral, Harm stayed back to say one last private good-bye to his marine. As he looked up into the sky, he saw another beautiful sunset. Then when he turned away he noticed others were staring at it too. He knew it was a gift from her to him and their family and friends.  
  
The End 


End file.
